The vote was on one of many amendments proposed Thursday as the Senate was debating a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act – a bill which is guaranteed a veto from President Barack Obama.
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The vote comes after the U.S. House passed two anti-choice bills in September-one to gut Planned Parenthood’s federal funding for one year unless the reproductive health-care provider stops performing abortions, and another that pro-choice advocates say would have a chilling effect on providers.
Congress will then send the measure, which also strips federal funding for Planned Parenthood, to Obama who will veto it.
The legislation was approved by 52 votes to 47.
Democrats noted that under the law, millions of people have become insured.
The legislation would repeal sections of Obamacare that mandate individuals to purchase health insurance and employers with more than 50 employees to provide it and would eliminate all fines for those that fail to comply.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski set aside a failed attempt to remove a provision defunding Planned Parenthood from a bill repealing major portions of Obamacare to vote in favor of the total package late Thursday. Anti-abortion activists have released videos earlier this year, claiming that Planned Parenthood makes profit by selling tissues of unborn babies.
Yet the legislation, passed under special Senate budget rules known as reconciliation, is still a significant accomplishment for Republicans, according to Politico.
Senators rejected a pair of similar amendments that would have restored the Planned Parenthood money. Yesterday’s bipartisan Senate vote to repeal the 40 percent tax demonstrates that repeal of the Cadillac tax is a powerful lever that Republicans can use to persuade Democrats to repeal the entire law.
The final decision on the bill is expected in the next two days after the final vote on reviving the Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act that is expected to take place by the end of the week.
This is also the bill that defunds Planned Parenthood, for no reason beyond that Planned Parenthood has been positioned as an evil feminist boogeyman, with the aid of a bogus video.
GOP lawmakers said the overall bill could serve as a bridge to a future Republican health care law. It would also annul tax increases imposed to cover the law’s costs, including levies on the income of higher-earning people, medical devices, costly insurance policies and tanning salons.
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“Millions of people are being covered though the Affordable Care Act that weren’t covered before, so it’s hard to imagine what would happen to those folks if they weren’t”, Jim Barrett, the executive director of Pisgah Legal Services, said.
